The National Assembly (RN) and its allies were clearly the largest in the first round of elections in France and secured just over 33 percent of the vote.
If Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party RN does as well in the second round of elections on July 7, they are likely to gain government power for the first time.
While Le Pen probably has her eyes fixed on the presidential election in three years’ time, it is the party’s 28-year-old leader and youthful star Jordan Bardella who, in that case, will take the prime minister’s post.
Social Media
Bardella has climbed to the top with good help from social media, impeccably dressed in tailored suits and with a great penchant for selfies.
– The French people have made a clear verdict, was his first comment after Sunday’s election.
It was the second snap election for the National Assembly after the party also did very well in the French EU elections last month.
Bardella promises to be “prime minister of all French people”, to respect the constitution and rule in “a coexistence” with President Emmanuel Macron, who has made it clear that he will remain in office until the end of his term.
Le Pens protests
Bardella has completed the degrees in the National Assembly since he was 16 years old. He became Le Pen’s protégé early on and in 2019 she gave him the task of leading the party’s election campaign ahead of the EU elections.
The following year he also cohabited with the daughter of Le Pen’s older sister. When Marine Le Pen resigned in 2022 to stand as a candidate in the presidential election, he took over as party leader.
– I owe Marine Le Pen an enormous amount, he admitted recently.
In recent years, Bardella has worked diligently to embellish the National Assembly’s frayed reputation as a party steeped in racism and anti-Semitism.
With him as a leading figure, the party has succeeded in gathering votes from French voters who have never previously considered voting for the far right. Among them are many pensioners and young people.
Sad block of flats
In a country where most of the top politicians come from wealthy families, Bardella, with his atypical background, appears as a breath of fresh air for many.
He grew up with an Italian-born single mother in a drab block of flats in the crime-ridden district of Seine-Saint-Denis in the north of Paris.
The father, who had both Italian and Algerian roots, was absent.
– He knows the real world. He is close to us, says the 24-year-old party activist Tom Maiani.
Private school
Bardella was sent to private school at a fairly young age and eventually ended up at the prestigious Sorbonne University before devoting himself to politics.
He himself presents himself as an example of successful integration, which he believes stands in stark contrast to many North Africans’ lack of integration in France.
– I saw how France would be in a few years if we did not take back control, said Bardella during an election meeting in 2022.
Referring to his own upbringing surrounded by immigrants in Seine-Saint-Denis, he spoke of “the pain of becoming a stranger in his own country”. It is a message that has always been central to the National Assembly and which obviously appeals to many French voters.
Anonymous Twitter account
A French television documentary recently accused Bardella of sharing racist remarks in an anonymous Twitter account.
In 2017, he allegedly ridiculed the young black man Theo Luhaka, who was brutally mistreated by the police.
Bardella denies having been behind the anonymous account and has shown himself to be a driven rhetorician who is not swayed either by accusations or in debates.
Some call him arrogant, an accusation he simply shrugs off.
An empty shell
Critics also accuse him of spending more time nurturing his own image on social media than engaging in politics.
During a debate with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal recently, he stumbled when asked about the party’s plan to overturn Macron’s unpopular pension reform.
According to Bardella’s former media advisor Pascal Humeau, he was initially “an empty shell” without ideology when he threw himself into politics, but proved to learn quickly.
The left-wing politician Manon Aubry describes him as “a ghost parliamentarian” and points out that as an elected official he has often been absent from the national assembly in the past five years.
Strained cohabitation
If Bardella ends up as France’s youngest prime minister of all time, a strained “cohabitation” with Emmanuel Macron awaits.
The president will probably do everything to put sticks in the wheels for him, knowing that a government paralyzed in action based on the National Assembly can help reduce Marine Le Pen’s chances of being elected president in 2027.
Le Pen has made two previous attempts to become president. Some in the party believe Bardella will have better chances.
The ambitious right-wing politician probably also has a little hope himself, but in that case history is not on his side. French prime ministers rarely end up as president. The only exception was Jacques Chirac in 1995.
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2024-07-02 18:14:55